Existing bartop gaming systems suffer from several limitations. First, current systems are typically designed to accept only coins, paper currency, or prepaid cards. This requires that currency or prepaid cards be available to a player. With the prior art systems, a cashier, change person, change machine, or prepaid card vending terminal, was required to make available to the player the necessary currency or prepaid cards for gaming. Second, the gaming system, along with the associated change machines and vending terminals, must be constantly emptied of its cash, thereby increasing security and maintenance costs. Third, a drawback of prior art bartop gaming systems is that an entire bar (bartop and bar base) must be replaced to install a typical prior art bartop gaming system, due to its large size.
Therefore, a better bartop gaming system is needed to overcome all of the above mentioned drawbacks.